Tony

(S07E16) When it was announced that Gena Rowlands would be on 'NCIS' as a guest, playing Jethro's former mother-in-law, you just suspected that this was going to be something special. Sometimes it's difficult to live up to the expectations, for the creators as well as the fans watching. Fortunately, this show did live up to the expectations, especially for those who have always wanted to know more about Gibbs and his tragic past.

(S07E15) Interesting episode of 'NCIS,' one that was somewhat fun, somewhat lighthearted, and even a little playful. Of course, there was still a dead body, and a chance for Gibbs to interact with an old adversary. We're a few weeks out from the Paris trip, but Tony and Ziva remain as cagey as ever about what happened... if anything happened at all in that hotel room. More on that and the 1971 Plymouth Barricuda hemi after the jump.

(S07E13) So there they were in Paris -- Tony and Ziva. The situation was ripe for romance, right? Was NCIS finally going to "go there" and let fans have a Moonlighting moment for their favorite characters?

Not so fast. Before you could say Champs Elysees, the two were boarding a jet at Charles de Gaulle airport to complete an assignment that turned into murder in the air. Fortunately, the mystery on the airliner trumped the one on the ground and made for a good episode.

One of my favorite actresses is joining the cast of America's most watched drama series. That means about 20 million viewers a week will get to see her in action. The actress is Rena Sofer and she's been cast on NCIS as a hard-nosed, no-nonsense lawyer. The role could be long term or recurring, they're not saying yet.

In fact, they're not giving much away at all. Not even the character's name or when she starts. Thus far, it's hard to see where a lawyer would be needed in the current storylines, so it's likely that there's an arc on the way that will bring her along as a key element.

Rena has a load of primetime experience, having appeared on Heroes, 24, Couples, Blind Justice, Just Shoot Me... but for me she was never better than when she was on General Hospital as Lois Cerullo.

(S07E05) Happy Halloween from your friends at NCIS! There was definitely some creepy stuff going on with this case, and for the first time in weeks, the concentration of the show was strictly on the mystery. No Ziva flashbacks, no Gibbs questions about Mossad, no Vance at all. It was just about how a Marine recently back from Afghanistan wound up dead in his car on the night before Halloween.

Over the summer, spoilers were leaked that the NCIS season premiere would begin with a bang. They weren't kidding. Last night's show was a spine-tingling puzzle of an episode that unraveled scene by scene, building suspense to the ultimate -- satisfying -- conclusion. If you were thinking that, like last year, the team was going to be torn asunder after the way things ended with Ziva being returned to Israel, you were pleasantly surprised. More after the jump.

However, there's another story to report. The overnight ratings are in and the viewers have spoken. Twenty million of them! The return of NCIS zoomed to the top of the ratings with 20 million viewers tuning in. That helped CBS launch NCIS: Los Angeles, opening with 18 million, and also bolstered The Good Wife with nearly 14 million. Any way you slice it, those are stellar numbers. The folk at the Black Rock must be dancing in the hallways.

Only 42 days to go. That's how long until the season premiere of NCIS. According to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, quoting exec producer Shane Brennan, the first minute of NCIS is a mindblower. What could this possibly mean? Will someone die, or will we discover what happened to Ziva? Was that her being beaten and tortured in the closing scene of last season's finale?

After all the discussion there's been over the finale of The Sopranos, it surprises me that nobody has commented on the superb parenting skills shown by Tony and Carmella over the past seven years. Why, in just the finale alone, there were a number of parenting tips that I was able to take to heart. If you're a parent, I think you might find them useful as well.

Don't let your children park their SUV in the forest.When I was a kid, nobody had SUV's. Also I grew up in the desert of Arizona, so piles of leaves were hard to find. I don't know if the dealer warns you about the fire-causing catalytic converter when you buy the car, but I'm glad I found this out before my kids started driving.

Bennett reportedly called the show "too cruel" in an interview with Time Out London. Bennett, who coached this season's hopefuls during the first week of April, said, "I had it out with Simon when I met him and suggested that he should open up tiny clubs across the countries so the kids could break in and learn properly."

The other day I talked about the questions I got asked
during The Sopranos premiere on Sunday evening, and how "Who's that Gene guy?" was the
reigning champ. Since then, I could easily add "What did Junior say before he shot Tony?" to the list of
growing curiosities. So, after some intense research (called a friend who called a friend who speaks italian, and whom
I apparently owe a drink to at a bar now), I've discovered just what he said. Even turning on the subtitles for the
episode didn't help, they just read Junior: (mumbles in italian) Malanga!, so it may not have been the
clearest recording that I emailed, but I was told that it sounded like Junior said "Cazzata Malanga!"

So what does Cazzata Malanga mean? Cazzata translates (I was told) into "worthless" or "piece of
garbage", definitely derogatory. Malanga, for those long term and keen-eared fans, you'll remember as being the guy
that Junior wanted to whack all the way back in season 1. Junior wanted the deed done at Vesuvio's (Artie's place) and
Tony didn't, which is what led to the fallout between uncle and nephew. To me, this is just to further the point that
Junior is finally senile; he's not faking, he's not lying, he just actually is crazy. Let me know what you think.

Ok, if you haven't watched Sunday night's season premiere of The
Sopranos, stop reading. There's plenty of other TV Squad goodness, so just skip on to something else. For
those of you that are still with me now, you know that Tony is, at the very least, out of commission for a little
while. This is going to lead to a power struggle of absolutely epic proportions. Now, most Mafia familys are set
up with the Boss who's in charge, the Underboss, who's his
second-in-command, and then the Consigliere, who actually fits
somewhere between the two since he's a "personal advisor" to the boss. After those three, there's the Capos who each lead up their own crews of made men. If what I just said was making your head spin, trust me,
it's not that bad.

Being the TV guru in my group of friends and family, there were
many questions that I got rapid-fire during last night's sixth season premiere (Did you know
Adrianna's still alive? Is Tony Dead? Is Johnny Sack still gonna be in prison?), but the most frequent one I got was
"Who is this Gene guy?" You know who I'm talking about-- Gene was the one who inherited the millions of
dollars from his dying aunt. He was the one who killed himself (in an incredibly graphic scene). He was the one who
no-one had seen before last night's episode. Well, that's where people were wrong. You see, Robert Funaro has been playing the character of
Eugene Pontecorvo since early Season 3. Sure, he hasn't had a huge
role in the series so far (he's been one of the family's generic soldiers, normally answering to Paulie or Sil) but
he's been there. Would the writers really just introduce him for the sake of killing him off though?

The countdown is under way; after almost two years, The Sopranos new season will be upon us in a scant 18 days (Yes, I'm counting, I'm
having a party with a huge italian feast). Like most fans of the series, I devour every bit of "The Sopranos knowledge" that HBO wants to drop on us. The past couple of
seasons, the release of that season's poster has been the catalyst for massive amounts of speculation. Who's gonna die
this year? Who's going to turn on the family? Look at the way the salt has spilled in front of Paulie! So, I'm sure it
will be no different with the new poster that we've
been sent by HBO. You may have seen it around so far, but check out our high quality version and let the speculation begin. A
couple of things that I notice right off the bat, are obviously: A) Dr. Melfi, very ghostly in the reflection of the
door. B) Silvio glaring and Christopher out of the corner of his eye, seem to be the only two looking at Tony and C)
Bobby is the only person sitting besides Tony. Does any of that mean anything? Probably not. It sure is fun to
wonder though. Let's hear what you have to say.